Water Report Came Back, thoughts?

[dirtyb15]

Okay, so i got my ward water report back, below is what it says. Up till now i have just been treating with a campden tablet. I entered the below values into the EZ Water Calculator Spreadsheet and according to it, my ph is just a little high. Do you think i can get by using this water with adjustments? Thanks!

pH 7.8
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 397
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm
Cations / Anions, me/L
0.66
7.0 / 7.3
ppm
Sodium, Na 21
Potassium, K 10
Calcium, Ca 72
Magnesium, Mg 27
Total Hardness, CaCO3 293
Nitrate, NO3-N 1.7 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 12
Chloride, Cl
35
Carbonate, CO3 < 1.0
Bicarbonate, HCO3 331
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 273

 

[Yooper]

Yikes! That's very high bicarbonate. You may find that boiling the water first, and racking off the precipitate may work well for you. Or, you could try lime softening to reduce that alkalinity. I did that a couple of times, and didn't enjoy it at all- but it can be done. The link I'd like to link to for that process seems to be down at the moment.

The other option would be to dilute with reverse osmosis or distilled water- but you'd have to dilute like 9:1 for most beers from my quick guestimate.

I'm going to move this thread into the Brew Science forum, because water chemistry is a complicated topic and the water gurus are best equipped to handle a question like this!

 

[McKnuckle]

Yep... your mash pH will be too high for all but the darkest beers with that water. But it's not the water's pH of 7.8 that's the problem; as Yooper states it's the alkalinity (which comes from very high bicarbonate content). I have this issue with my well water and have switched to distilled as a result.

 

[dirtyb15]

Okay thanks for the feedback.. Im curious, could this be causing a lingering bitterness in my beers?

 

[mabrungard]

Okay thanks for the feedback.. Im curious, could this be causing a lingering bitterness in my beers?

If you had not been neutralizing that excess alkalinity in those previous brews, yes the resulting high wort pH will lead to harsh bitterness and potentially tannin and silicate extraction in the beers.

If you have been neutralizing the alkalinity, I notice that the magnesium content is a little higher than ideal and that might introduce a bit of bitterness to the beer.

 

[dirtyb15]

Nope, have not done anything to the water, just straight out of the tap. All of my beers have the same bitter aftertaste so hoping this is the reason. Excited to try another batch to be sure!

 

[uncleleon]

Dilute. Acidify. Brew.

Dilute to the mineral levels you want, shouldn't take much.
Acidify to proper ph (online calculator)
Brew! Practice makes perfect. Taste it, take notes, compare results and flavor descriptions, and do it all over again! Cheers!

Looks like all you need is some gypsum and phosphoric acid
+1 preboil and decant. Purify the hell out of that malt hop tea!